Recruiting fans always will remember the players that their favorite team landed but will also remember the ones who got away, sometimes even more vividly than team successes.

No matter how good the recruiter is, be it Jim Tressel, Urban Meyer or Ryan Day, there are going to be kids who get away, or at least it appears that they got away.

But with only one signing period for much of the run of this series (the first year of the December signing period went into place for the class of 2018), how do you really say that you “had someone” who may or may not have given you a verbal commitment.

It got us to thinking about some of the names out there that still bother fans, the ones who flipped, the ones who never answered the call and ultimately ended up somewhere else.

As the month of July draws close, let’s take a walk down memory lane and talk about a few of these names from the class of 2006 through the class of 2018. The jury is still out on classes from 2019 and beyond and my first year with the site was 2006, so that seems to be a good starting point.

2006 |

This was a small class, by anyone’s standards with just 15 players, but even with the small numbers, it was the nation’s No. 15 class according to Rivals.com, built off the fact that 12 of the 15 members were rated as four-stars. The highest rated players in the class were running back Brandon Saine out of Piqua (Ohio) and defensive back Eugene Clifford, who played for Kerry Coombs at Colerain high school in Cincinnati. This class still has NFL representation with Cameron Heyward still going strong for the Pittsburgh Steelers. There are some obvious misses in terms of filling needs at positions with quarterback (zero signed) and offensive lineman (one signed) jumping off the page.

As great as Ohio State was at signing quality classes under Tressel, one of the weak points is that Ohio State did not throw a lot of offers out there, with none at quarterback and with Antonio Henton’s days in Columbus being short, that certainly did not help the numbers in the room with what essentially amounted to a two-year miss.

Rob Gronkowski

Okay, Ohio State has had mixed success with tight ends through the years, the 2008 season saw a combined 19 receptions between Brandon Smith, Rory Nicol and Jake Ballard. The number went down to 16 the following year.

But would things have been different if the Buckeyes were able to land ‘Gronk’? Ohio State had its chance, landing an official visit in early-December of 2006. It was not like he had to make a far trip from Pittsburgh to get to the Ohio State campus, but the Buckeyes did not end up taking a tight end in the class, Gronk went on to Arizona and the rest is, as they say, history.

Anthony Davis

Rutgers was not even a member of the Big Ten at this point, but it should not be that big of an upset that a Piscataway (N.J.) player decided to stay home, even if he had other national interest on the table. Ohio State had its chance with a November official visit and by all accounts, things were trending very well with Ohio State and Davis, but the Buckeyes could not seal the deal as Davis would end up staying home, giving the Scarlet Knights a rare Rivals100 commitment. Ohio State would host fewer than five offensive lineman official visits, only landing Evan Blankenship, a player that is now remember as being a more prolific guitar player than offensive lineman, a definite miss for Jim Bollman and the Ohio State staff on a team that has always made its name with stellar line play on both sides of the ball.

Major Wright

As the Buckeyes were getting ready to play Florida in the BCS title game, St. Thomas Aquinas safety Major Wright was making the decision of where to play his college ball and while Miami (Fla.) and Notre Dame were in the mix as well, this really came down to being an Ohio State versus Florida decision for the nation’s No. 43 player. Ohio State had the first of the official visits in November, but a lot of time passed between then and the January visits and Ohio State could not get Wright to pull the trigger, as all accounts said he was legitimately torn between the two schools. The Buckeyes would end up signing a five-man defensive back class, but Wright would have been a difference maker if he picked Ohio State and you just have to wonder how some fortunes may have changed with him playing for Ohio State rather than Florida.

Joseph Barksdale

Most people felt that this would end up being a Midwest battle for the Cass Tech product. Ohio State, Michigan State and Michigan were involved with the first two getting official visits. There was a good feeling around Ohio State fans that the Buckeyes would be able to wrestle the big defensive tackle out of Michigan and bring him south. Now, he did not stay in the state of Michigan, but he ended up opting for LSU, which surprised many people as this felt like a much more local recruitment. The Buckeyes would be fine with Heyward and Solomon Thomas in the class, but it was still one of those “woulda, coulda, shoulda” moments.